Don't feel secure in sending our team to India, next step depends on ICC's response: BCB president
Dhaka (PTI): Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam on Monday said that "we do not feel secure" in sending the national team to India for the T20 World Cup considering the current circumstances.
Aminul spoke to reporters a day after BCB formally requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to shift their T20 World Cup games out of India, a strong move triggered by pacer Mustafizur Rahman's release from the IPL on BCCI instruction.
"You know that we, along with all the directors of the cricket board, held two meetings before taking this decision and at this moment we do not feel secure sending our team to India to play the World Cup," Aminul said.
"So we wrote a letter to the ICC, and in the letter we clearly stated what we wanted to say. Because to us, security appeared to be a major concern and that is what we are following.
"We have sent an email to the ICC and we are expecting them to tell us to have a meeting with them soon where we will express our concern," he said.
Aminul said BCB's next step will depend on ICC's response.
"But what our next step will be depend on the reply to the email we have sent. We are not communicating with BCCI because this is an ICC event. We are communicating with the ICC," he said.
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, while announcing the diktat to release Rahman, had merely stated that it was being done because of "developments all around", without explaining the specifics.
Bangladesh was scheduled to play three T20 World Cup matches in Kolkata and one in Mumbai.
Drawn in Group C, the team was due to face the West Indies in their opening match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 7 and subsequently compete against defending champions England, Italy and Nepal.
The Indo-Bangladesh relationship has hit a rocky patch after the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August last year following anti-government protests.
She was sentenced to death in absentia by a tribunal for her alleged role in a deadly crackdown during the agitation in which several students were killed.
Hindus have been targetted for violent attacks since Hasina's ouster.
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Ramzan fasts to begin in India from Thursday
New Delhi (PTI): Ramzan fasts will begin on Thursday in India as the crescent moon marking the start of the fasting month was sighted in various parts of the country on Wednesday.
After the sighting of the moon, the holy month begins and for the next 30 days, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
Shahi Imam of Chandni Chowk's Fatehpuri mosque Maulana Mufti Mukarram Ahmed announced that the crescent moon was sighted and the month of fasting will start from February 19.
Naib Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Shaban Bukhari also declared that the moon was sighted.
During this month, a special prayer called Taraweeh are offered in mosques in the evening. In this prayer, the entire Quran is recited and it continues till the sighting of the Eid moon.
Mufti Mukarram has appealed to the Muslim community to "pray as much as possible for the well-being of the 140 crore people of the country".
